


I Don't Purr

by TheRedPaladin101



Series: Written by Friends [2]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Fluff and Angst, Galra Keith (Voltron), Hurt Keith (Voltron), M/M, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Protective Lance (Voltron), alien animals, but that's later on, lots of fluff, takes place during season 2
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-09-04
Updated: 2018-10-25
Packaged: 2019-07-06 18:07:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,637
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15891270
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheRedPaladin101/pseuds/TheRedPaladin101
Summary: The Voltron crew has just discovered Keith is part Galra, and their reactions have been a bit off, but that's expected. Even Keith doesn't know what to think. But it doesn't exactly help when Keith crash lands on a foreign planet and the Red Lion shuts down.





	1. Lost

**Author's Note:**

> This story is not mine at all - I was given permission (and asked really) by the owner to publish it on this website.
> 
> The original story can be found [here](https://www.quotev.com/story/11072342/I-Dont-Purr)
> 
> The author can also be found [here](https://www.quotev.com/BasicallyAnIdiot)

"Y'know, it kinda makes sense you're part Galra."

The crew was sitting at the dining table, eating the classic green food goo together. Allura was being uncharacteristically quiet, and Keith could tell she was avoiding him. Lance sat across from him, head propped up in his hand, looking over at Keith.

Keith glared at him. "Shut up," he grumbled, shoulders slumping as he focused on the plate of food in front of him. He was still sore from fighting and fighting the Blade of Mamora folks. Sore and tired, even though it occurred a couple of days ago. But Allura was still ignoring him and everyone was still talking about the whole Galra thing. 

"No, seriously!" Lance said, leaning back in his seat, tucking his arms behind his head. He was smirking slightly. "You purr." 

Pidge and Hunk both choked on their food goo, and Hunk stifled a laugh.

Keith raised his eyebrows, looking up at Lance. "I what now?"

"You purr! Am I the only one who's noticed? Whenever he's all sleepy and stuff, he purrs," Lance said. He was suddenly leaning over the table, reaching his hand out to Keith, as if trying to pet him. Keith immediately swatted his hand, making a face. 

"I don't purr," Keith all but snarled, standing up. "I'm going to go- Train." 

"No time!" Suddenly to interrupt the calm and while slightly tense mood, was Coran. He had his headset on and had ran in, nearly running directly into Keith. "Sorry, number four! We have a problem! Everyone, to their lions!"

Shiro was the first one to stand up. There went their dinner. "What's going on?" He was quick to ask, just as the rest moved to stand. 

"I've just received a distress signal from a planet nearby, apparently some rebels have been hiding out there that need our assistance right away- A Galra fleet has captured a few of the rebels as leverage for their surrender," Coran explained quickly, ushering everyone to go. Shiro nodded firmly.

"To your lions!" Shiro ordered, and the crew quickly scampered to get to work. 

It was a good distraction for Keith. His body ached, and he was still annoyed with Lance for that dumb comment about him purring. He did not purr. There was some biological thing with cats that made them purr, their vocal chords or something. Keith was positive he didn't have any of that. Just because he was part Galran didn't mean he was any different still. 

Once Keith was armored up and sitting in Red's cockpit, he was gladly following the Black Lion to the nearby planet. He scanned the nearby terrain, as Pidge piped up on the comms.

"We need to be really careful about this- Coran sent me the intel behind the captives. They're being threatened with death if the rebels don't surrender," Pidge warned. 

"How many prisoners are there?" Shiro asked. 

"Six of them. Apparently one of them is a royal from the planet," Pidge answered.

Shiro assessed the situation. "Coran, can you connect us to the Galras holding the rebels captive? Maybe we can negotiate," he suggested. That sounded reasonable. 

"No can do, they demand a surrender and refuse to make contact," Coran responded with a sigh. 

"It may be wise to land the lions, Coran and I will stay in the air just in case," Allura decided. "Make sure to land far from the city, where the rebels that escaped are. This planet is quite large, so don't get lost."

"You got it, Princess," Shiro confirmed, and the crew followed him down to a small city where a large group of different types of aliens had gathered in the town square. Allura was right; The planet was huge, maybe even bigger than Earth. But unlike Earth, from up high, it was a lot more wildlife than it was inhabited by intelligent life. 

The five lions landed down onto a grassy field just outside the city, a group of rebels running to meet them. Each Paladin got out, except for Keith.

"Keith, survey the nearby cities," Shiro instructed. "Pidge, join him soon, but I need you to do something first."

"On it," Keith said, lifting Red back into the air, a question on which direction to go on the tip of his tongue, but he was interrupted. 

"Oh, and Keith? Stay above enough the Galras won't detect you," Allura said. "You too, Pidge. They're out to the east and they're quite alert."

Pidge and Keith both gave their confirmations, and then Keith lifted off into the air. The rest of the crew got out of their lions, talking to the rebels, while Pidge quickly did some math, nerdy thing for Shiro.

Keith set off, knowing Pidge would follow soon. He managed to go far above the clouds, squinting down at the other city he was approaching. It seemed relatively calm, but he knew the captives were being held somewhere there. He looked around, circling it, before spotting through the clouds three Galra ships.

"Guys, I see three Galra ships down in the next city," Keith informed them.

"Does it look like we could infiltrate it by foot?" Shiro asked.

"Uh, even if we do, we should have at least one lion in the air, just in case," Hunk suggested. Everyone agreed with him. 

"Yeah, I think so? It's kinda hard to tell since I'm above the clouds," Keith said with a frown. "I'll try to take a closer look."

"Be careful!"

Unfortunately, Keith wasn't careful.

What could have been a straightforward mission- Go by foot in secret to rescue the captives, and then fight the Galras down- Went terribly wrong. 

Keith dipped the Red Lion under the clouds, approaching too close to the three ships that held Galras and prisoners. A few Galras outside spotted him, and within seconds, one of the Galra ships (a very, very large one with an ion cannon) was up and after Keith.

He cursed. "They saw me," Keith said. "I'm gonna need some backup here!" 

"I'm on my way!" Pidge called, and over the comm, Keith could hear her running, presumably to the Green Lion. 

Shots began to fire at Keith, and while Keith shot back, it was doing little damage. He swerved out of the way, leading the enemy higher in the air and farther and farther away from civilization. He didn't know why he was leading the ship away, but he figured that'd be a good idea.

Pretty soon, the Green Lion joined him, and Pidge and Keith managed a system to attack the ship without getting hurt, all the while leading them away. Pidge would swerve up and attack the ship, she'd be fired at, and meanwhile Keith would be shooting at it. Then switch.

The enemies seemed to catch on, though, because while Keith was making his move, firing under him, an ion cannon was shot. He cursed, Red getting hit directly in the front. She and Keith were slammed into, hitting Red in such an important spot that she suddenly deactivated. Keith's head hit the back of his seat so fast he thought he had whiplash, and the air was pulled from his lungs. He saw stars. 

"Keith! Agh- We need more help here!" Pidge cried, and was too busy avoiding shots to help Keith, who's lion was suddenly falling quickly to the ground. 

Next thing he knew, with a crash, Keith had hit the ground. His body was forced forward, and his head hit the controls of the Lion so badly it cracked his helmet. He was out of breath and suddenly very sore. After a few moment of collecting himself, he raised his head. 

"Red?.." He said weakly. His Lion did not respond, in fact, it didn't react or turn on at all. "Guys? Pidge? Shiro?"

Through the comm he heard varied amounts of static and vague shouts he couldn't understand. He slid his helmet off his head, squinting at it. A large crack ran right down the middle of it. These suits were strong stuff. He must have hit his head horribly hard on impact. With a sigh, he left it behind, before climbing out of the lion. 

He looked around, climbing on top of Red to see better. He was in a very large and dense forest, and even stranding at the top of Red looking over the trees, Keith could not see any sign of a city in sight. When he looked up, he could see the Green Lion and the Galra ship far out in the distance, but in such a wooded area, they'd never see Keith from here. Still, that didn't stop him from jumping up and down and waving his arms around desperately. But he stopped once he realized that if Pidge could see him, so could the Galras. 

What was he supposed to do now?

 

"Keith! Agh- We need more help here!"

Pidge's words were the first thing Lance heard when he put his helmet on after talking with some of the rebels with Hunk and Shiro. He was the first of the three to start running to his lion. 

"Pidge, what's going on!?" Lance shouted as Blue opened her jaw to let him in. 

"Keith's been shot down- Ahh! I can't handle these guys on my own!" Pidge cried, and Lance could hear the shots going off from her end.

"Keith? Keith, buddy, you there??" Lance asked almost desperately as he slid into the seat of the wonderful Blue lion. As if on cue, a loud crash! sounded over the end of the comm, followed by significant static, a vague call that sounded like it could be Keith, before it cut out altogether. 

"Communications with Keith are down!" Coran said, as if Lance hadn't realized that already. 

Lance was already rising up in his lion. "I'm going to go look for Keith!" He said.

"No, no, hold on!" Shiro ordered. "Lance, you go and help Pidge distract that ship. Hunk and I will get the captives, they are our priority!"

"But what about-"

Lance was interrupted again. "I'm sure Keith will be fine, now go!"

Lance gritted his teeth, knowing he should obey, but Keith got hit head-on by an ion cannon! Maybe he was overreacting, but he had reason to be worried. Still, Lance obeyed, and lifted into the air to go join Pidge.

 

From what Keith had experienced in the past hour, this forest was no regular forest.

It'd been an hour, first off, and still nothing. No response or anything from his team. He couldn't have gone that far, could he? It didn't help that the trees around him were monstrously gigantic, hiding him and the Red Lion without problem.

And the trees, well, they moved. Like a person stuck in place. Their branches would swing around without a hint of wind and they'd turn the tops of their tree tops would turn like heads. It was borderline terrifying. However they always stopped moving whenever Keith came near.

Not only was that weird, but the grass beneath his feet reminded him strongly of desert grass. Long, uncomfortable to the touch, and usually growing in patches. When there wasn't desert grass around, the ground was covered with stuff falling from the moving trees that were like pine needles but smelled like coconut.

Since there was enough oxygen to breathe in, he had his helmet off since it was cracked and the communicator wasn't working. He stayed close to his lion, making sure Red was always in his sights. 

So he went exploring as far as he could go while being able to see Red.

And Keith definitely found some strange things.

Like one of the huge, monstrous trees having been sawed in half, almost all of it collapsed on the ground. Yet it still moved, until Keith approached it.

And the small, bird-like creatures flying about, their chirping being terrifying shrieks at each other. From what Keith could see, they were definitely dangerous.

Despite the plants, the birds, and another strange little animal, there seemed to be no signs of life. It was oddly eerie and silent, except for the shrieking birds, to Keith. Keith, who enjoyed solitude, did not like. And he didn't feel safe.

But there was that strange little alien animal. Not intelligent from what Keith could observe. It was small, light brown and furry, with six eyes on top of it. It didn't seem to have separate body parts, like a head and a torso...just a ball of fluff with two stubby legs. It seemed cute and made a soft chirping noise.

Keith stabbed it with the intent to eat it.

He was going to be out in the wilderness for who knows how long, he needed dinner.

And luckily, the small creature was edible and didn't kill him. Woo.

So Keith settled down outside by Red, made a fire, cooked the small animal, and carefully rationed his water that he had intelligently left in Red in case of emergencies.

He hoped that the others would find him soon.


	2. Wilderness

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Author - "Sorry, this one is a bit shorter. Next chapter will be longer."

It had been a whole day.

Really, an entire day, twenty-four hours, give or take a few, and Keith hadn't been found. It turned out this planet had two suns, it never really became nighttime. More like one sun went down, the other came up that was just a little dimmer. Dim enough that Keith took that as nighttime and he went back inside Red to spend the "night" in his broken ship. 

In the morning, he once again tried to put on the helmet and get Red to work. But unlike Pidge or Hunk, he wasn't any good with engineering or any of the whole fixing things deal. He couldn't even find the panel or wires that was broken.

So all in all, until he was found, he was hopeless.

He kept his fire up and burning whenever he could- Somebody had to see the smoke eventually, right? He would have tried some S.O.S. sign, but being so hidden by the trees, there was just no way anyone would see it of see him up in the sky.

In theory, Keith could go looking for everyone, but he knew he had flown miles and miles away from everyone, that it'd likely take days to find them.

Staying put and staying alone seemed to be the best option. For now, at least.

He, at the very least, hoped the others were looking for him.

If not, well, he was going to go _find them._

 

Lance didn't know why he was worried, but he was. Keith sometimes disappeared every now and then, sure, but that was on his own accord and everyone knew where to find him. (Usually, the training deck.)

But now, for over a day, he had been gone. Absolutely no contact from him, nothing. Pidge could only guess on where Keith might be- She had seen him crash, but couldn't pinpoint the coordinates and was in the middle of trying not to die when she saw. So she couldn't say for sure.

For about ten hours, just about, Shiro and Hunk went by foot to go investigate the trees on where he might be, while Lance and Pidge took to the skies, scouring every inch that they could.

However, both pairs received the same problem: The trees just held them back. They were huge and thick and everywhere, blocking their views at almost every angle.

The day before had, at least, worked out. Pidge and Lance kept the Galras distracted with everyone rescued the captives. Then they fought the Galras down until, eventually, the rest of them escaped and left the planet altogether. It had been easy and quick, with little damage done to their lions.

Except, obviously, Keith.

Not only could they not form Voltron, but they were also missing their friend.

Lance made sure to remind everyone of this.

"It's only been a day, Lance, I'm sure he'll come storming out of the trees with war paint on his face and holding a space deer as meat," Pidge had dramatized, waving her hands around. Hunk had laughed, and Allura and Coran asked what a deer was. 

Lance laughed as well. "Probably. Or do you think he'll have an animal friend with him and become a Disney princess?" Everyone giggled, and Shiro rolled his eyes.

"Well, we need to do something. We can't stay here for much longer, but we also can't leave the Red Lion or Keith behind," Allura said, setting her hands in her lap as she sat down, creating a solemn mood onto everyone.

Shiro nodded, folding his arms. "Allura's right. Er...any ideas?"

"We should check the locals if they have any ideas?" Hunk offered.

"We already did that, Hunk," Pidge reminded him.

"No, no, I know, I meant the locals near the forest." Everyone looked at Hunk with confusion. "Ugh, okay, did no one else see that tiny little village on the edge of the huge, creepy forest? There's probably more of it inside the forest itself."

Lance and everyone else shook their heads.

"Well! Now you know," Hunk said, exasperated.

"Uh...now we know. Good idea, Hunk. We'll do that. But we should all probably get some sleep today first. Been a long day," Shiro said, yawning himself. 

"Are you sending us to bed like kids, oh wonderful Space Dad?" Pidge teased.

Everyone laughed.

 

Thirty-six hours, so a day and a half, and nothing. Keith was starting to run low on water, though he had been sure to ration what he could. He felt himself get more irritable as the day went on, with nothing happening.

He looked down at his hands, examining his precious knife he now knew he had due to being part Galra. How much Galra, he didn't know.

Though, his hands and arms were starting to splotch purple.

Fortunately, this was not cause for alarm, as Keith had had his arms, legs, hands, and other various body parts splotch purple from time to time at varying degrees and times throughout his whole life. He tried telling his doctor as a kid, who wrote it off as a skin distortion that would go away. It didn't, and he didn't know what to do about it, so he just hid it.

Hiding it worked. It always went away, it never hurt. It wasn't alarming. It only happened every couple of months at the most.

Though, now, as it came back on his hands and his arms, he was almost definitely sure it was because of his Galra heritage. Absolutely positive. After all, discovering he was part Galra and the fact that Galra's are purple...it just made sense. 

Except, this time, there was more than just purple splotches.

Over the course of about an hour, he started feeling a little...different. Not in appearance-wise- He felt just, stronger. Like his senses were more enhanced. His smell especially was enhanced- Which was weird, really. 

Stronger and more enhanced senses? Fine. He'd take it. Especially in his situation...Which was being lost, homeless, and almost out of water.

Awesome.

As the thirty-seventh hour of his solitude approached, Keith just had to get up and go. He gave Red, who was still entirely out of service, some comforting words, packed up all his water and food he'd caught, and set off. 

Though it was quickly evident that navigating through the forest was not going to be easy. It was so thick and dense that it was a very challenging hike for him, pushing through bushes and branches, climbing over rocks and suspicious looking plants that he definitely didn't recognize. And, his sense of smell was just being attacked by the different things around him. It was sort of... hard to concentrate.

By the time the forty-first hour passed, Keith had no water left and he was absolutely exhausted. His senses were on high alert, and much more of his skin had been blotting purple. And, weirdly, it wasn't dying down. But Keith was too tired to notice just yet.

Keith needed water. That was now his first priority.

It took a solid thirty minutes of more hiking before he found any source of water. Mud was his first sign and a bit of a more open clearing. Animal footprints of some sort of alien animal Keith would have no idea what to call it. He followed the footprints for another good few minutes, exhausted and his throat becoming sore.

Luckily, he found a pond of mostly clean-looking water not soon after.

Disregarding all dangers the water might have right now, Keith dropped down and started drinking the water. It tasted like sweet rose water, and a little bit of lemon for some reason. If it was dangerous, he could tend to whatever was wrong with it or something later, as long as it didn't kill him anytime soon.

He sat up and wiped his mouth, pulling out a small flask he was smart enough to carry in his Lion and filling it with water. 

Alright. He still had food and he now had water. Great. Now he needed somewhere safe to sleep, because when you hike in very rough conditions for hours, you lose a lot of calories and a lot of energy. And besides, the brighter sun of this planet was starting to dip below the horizon. 

Keith stood up, pocketing his flask and pulling out a piece of meat from one of those fluffy, harmless animals he had shot that morning. There was a lot of them, it seemed, and they didn't really do anything except make that weird chirping noise and try to approach him. They had an awful gamy taste, but it was better than nothing.

He looked around and sighed. It seemed peaceful and quiet.

Keith turned around, and promptly dropped the piece of meat that was about to enter his mouth so he could grab his bayard, immediately moving into an defensive stance.

Standing in front of him was at least a dozen of the most terrifying animal aliens he had ever seen.

He was obviously in between them and the pond, and they seemed to be amphibious, so that definitely was a very bad thing. They were large, bore two sets of sharp teeth, were light orange and blue in color. They were covered with scales that seemed to be pointed, like if you pet them the wrong way you would scratch up your whole hand. And they were all hunched down, a spiky red tail waving up above them.

They had every intent to attack Keith, and Keith had every intent to protect himself.


	3. Attacked

Just like Hunk had said, there was another group of locals entirely. Their village was on the edge of the forest, almost disappearing into the trees but not quite. However they did get a lot of unpredictable shade from the moving trees. So the team, minus Keith, went out to meet them in the morning.

The aliens here were...strange-looking. But granted, most were. They were aliens. Go figure. Anyway, they were all incredibly tall, like Galras were (again, minus Keith), but instead of being cat-like, they were more...cow-like. They had huge curved horns, at least on the males, and brown or white fur all over, with a snout much too similar to a cow, and yet, almost sort of like a dog. They were like really weird, mutated furries. Females sported two tails, that was pretty much the only way to separate the men and women as they looked so similar with body type, and the males had none. Oh, and they all had seven fingers on both hands. 

So the team stood around a grassy village, huge two-story huts with no doors all clustered close together, little alien children running around and laughing with each other in a language that definitely wasn't English. Almost as soon as the pair of five, Lance, Hunk, Pidge, Shiro, and Allura, arrived, an even taller cow-alien person arrived. A woman, it seemed, wearing almost nothing. But she also had horns. 

Turns out, she was the leader of these locals. And she did not look happy.

"What are Paladins here for? The Galras left," the cow-alien leader lady said, hissing every 's' like a snake. She folded her arms over her much-too bare chest, looking down at Shiro who stepped forward. Even the war-torn PTSD-riddled Black Paladin was nervous around this giant of a woman. 

"My name is Shiro, the Black Paladin. One of our Paladins is missing," Shiro stated plainly. "The Red Paladin." He opened his mouth to continue, but the woman interrupted. 

The woman laughed, which sounded like a grunt. "I remember. I seen the Red Lion go down and not come back. Sad." 

Pidge looked like she might die with how bad the woman's grammar was. "I saw," she grumbled under her breath.

"You text just as bad, shut up," Hunk whispered back. Shiro gave them both a look.

"Well, yes. We need to find him, is there any chance you or your people know where he went down?" Shiro asked, being as formal as possible despite this woman's attitude.

"No," the leader snapped. "But Lealo did. Lealo!" The leader turned and called for this supposed Lealo, then started speaking in that weird, hissy-sounding language. After a moment, a small cow-person approached. A male, with tiny horns on his head and actually covering up more than his leader did. 

He looked at the Paladins and seemed to panic, looking up at the leader warily. She motioned him over and he tentatively followed.

"Tell Black Paladin where Red Lion is," the leader instructed.

Lealo looked down at his bare, very hairy feet. When he started to speak though, he only spoke in the strange, hissy sounding language. 

"I'm sorry, I can't understand you," Shiro said kindly to the young boy, who looked just as lost when he spoke.

The woman groaned. "Ugh. He and friends found Red Lion in east quadrant of trees, eh, two npakas from here."

"Oh! She means two and a half vargas," Allura piped in.

"Which means two and a half hours," Pidge translated. 

"That wasn't confusing at all," Lance said sarcastically. 

Shiro looked confused. "So, wait, Lealo walked two and a half hours? And back?" He scratched his head. 

Allura nodded. "I assume so." The Princess turned to the leader again. "Um, Your Majesty, where is the east quadrant?" 

What was assumed now to be the Queen of the area looked Allura up and down. "You are Altean Princess," the Queen said bluntly. Allura looked surprised.

"Um, yes, I'm Princess Allura," Allura said formally with a small smile. "Do you know me?"

"Eh. No. We will show you east quadrant so you leave." 

 

Now, look, Keith was a good fighter. One of the best, mind you. He trained mercilessly, day in and day out it seemed. He knew how to fight- people. He knew how to fight people. Animals? Especially alien animals he had never seen in his life? Not a clue.

Animals were unpredictable. He didn't know what they did, how they attacked, what their weaknesses were. With the aliens he fought usually, as in Galras, he knew these things. He knew how to fight in his lion, against the Galras, and alongside his team.

Alien animals, that were near twice his side and at least a dozen of them looking pissed as all hell at him? 

Yeah, he didn't know how to fight them.

But dammit, he was going to try if the other option was death. (And it probably was.)

He had already pulled out his bayard, starting to wish for once he had a gun of some sort so he could shoot and run. However, his enhanced senses were definitely a help, for whatever reason they were there for. He hadn't noticed, but the purple splotches on his skin had only gotten bigger, too. And even now, it was like he could see better. Clearer, farther. More observant? It was weird. But no time to focus on that.

One of the beasts charged towards him, and then another. Keith reacted by swinging to the side, plunging his sword into the beast's side as it's tail came whipping down, spiked, and almost like a giant scorpion. He dodged it, pulling out the sword as thick green blood almost seemed to pour disgustingly out of the animal.

The other beasts came for him, as the one he attacked fell over, alive, but severely injured.

It didn't take long before Keith got hurt.

He was dodging every clash of teeth, and every swipe of that spiked tail after him, stabbing what he could while also backing up, trying to get out of the way between them and the water. However, he hadn't noticed a mouth full of several rows of sharp teeth slam down on his arm, violently yanking him to the side. Thank goodness for the armor, but it didn't last long, because the beast quite literally ripped his arm armor right off! 

He lost his balance, stumbling back as the armor was ripped off, only scrapes being left behind, his suit underneath it ripped. He caught a glance of splotchy white and purple skin but refused to acknowledge it. 

Another beast came for him, swinging it's tail down. It was surprisingly strong, and hit him in the side, scraping his armor and throwing him down quite violently. He cried out, but he was kidding himself if even thought of giving up. 

(But let's not forget something, Keith is also exhausted, barely fed, and just had water after being dehydrated. Not a good mix when you're fighting for your life.) 

Panting and scrambling to get up, Keith threw his sword out and managed to barely deflect getting hit again by those awful tails. But the force of the hit made Keith lost his grip, and his bayard skittered across the ground and into the pond.

Keith had his dagger on him, the one that apparently meant he was Galra, so he was quick to yank it out of it's hiding place and use it, but not quick enough. Another strong set of alien jaws slammed onto his legs, and before he could stab it, another beast hit him with his tail, this time in the head.

He had stupidly left his helmet with the Red Lion, and he was regretting it now.

His vision went fuzzy as his body was yanked to the side, though his grip on his dagger did not falter. He felt dizzy and sick from the hit to his head, and another piece of armor on his leg had just been ripped off, his armor being destroyed.

And those beasts were still going at him, even as he struggled to get his bearings, unable to fight in his current position. Alarm bells were screaming in his head, more of his armor was being ripped off and more hits kept coming his way and he couldn't even stand up! 

It was when he felt the worst pain in his leg suddenly erupt that he snapped back to reality, forcing himself to start kicking. One of the beasts had bit directly with those terrible teeth of their's into his leg. He shouted a curse, stabbing the creature in the eye and then in the throat, green blood and his own red blood staining his leg. It was a bad bite, too, deep, and blood of his was running thickly down his leg. 

Keith rolled over just in time to dodge another hit of a tail, grabbing it before it could go away and then stabbing the beast it belonged to. Though his victory was short-lived, as one of the tails, which remember they had huge spikes on the ends of them, was suddenly slamming down and he couldn't react in time- and before he knew it, the large spiked tail had penetrated his side, digging in deep and likely breaking or rupturing something. 

He shouted in pain, stabbing the tail which made it retract. He was bleeding profusely, all down his side and staining the dirt and strawed grass red. Now his leg and side were bleeding terribly, his vision was still blurred, and the beasts were still surrounding him.

But they had stopped attacking him.

Not feeling up to par with fighting the rest of them, there were at least seven or more of them left, he stood still, wondering why they had backed off. His breath was shallow and he was gripping his bleeding side with a bruising, painful force. Anything to stop the bleeding. 

Some of them started walking away- Did they think he was dead? That would be helpful. A few that walked away slipped into the water, which ended up being much deeper than Keith had thought, as they disappeared in the water completely.

For a long, painful few minutes, Keith watched the alien beasts, some covered with green blood that were limping, others having the red stain of his own blood. It was...not pleasant. Then again, nothing about this situation was pleasant. 

For a second there, Keith thought he'd be safe, that they would all leave, thinking he was dead or too injured to go on. (And at this point, almost.)

And then he heard the crunching of the desert-y grass behind him. Alarmed, he turned his head, and caught a glimpse of...Lance? 

Lance?

He moved too quick, moving his head- One of the last beasts saw, and that dreaded spiked tail hit him right in the head, so hard his vision blacked out, his hearing became like static, and he was sure that was blood dripping down his temple.

And Keith was out.

 

"Guys! I found Keith!"


End file.
